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We are Married!!

Our Story

I should say that our story isn’t exactly a normal one. When we met, it was my first semester teaching.

…and it was my second semester learning.

Now before you breakout the pitchforks, no, I did not date my student. That’s how we met. I thought she was a nice girl and a good student.

I thought he was a nice and slightly dorky. I quickly realized that this blessedly humorous guy who was going to make computer literacy class bearable with his often self-deprecating jokes.

But let’s not belabor this point. It wasn’t until 2 years later that our story actually begins begins.

My friend Dave and I just got back from a great annual event at our friends’ house called Hogfest, and we decided to attend another annual event being held in the city of Scranton – La Fest Italiana.

Dave invited Erin; though I thought she kinda had a crush on him; this is when Dave said our story started.

Dave didn’t realize how happy I was to go to La Festa with them…this was the first time i started to think about Joe as possibly more than my old comp lit professor.

Joe and I had a mutual friend with whom i was living at the time. So I decided to have a Christmas get-together toward the end of the semester. I admit it…my primary motivation was seeing Joe before going home (unbeknownst to him).

I thought it would be fun – the ladies would cook, and we would bring the wine. As dinner was winding down, there was mention that we hadn’t watched a movie, and I suggested that we go to my place…I had a big TV! Dave & Colleen declined.

Ummmm…YES I wanted to watch a movie!!! Being my overly-analytical self, I worried it would be weird, just the two of us. So i dragged Colleen outside for some clarification. Colleen, I owe you a lot for that pep talk.

While the girls were outside, Dave mentioned that they were talking about me. I didn’t think anything of it (I did). When it was said and done, we headed to my place, Erin and me, and we watched our first movie: Forgetting Sarah Marshall. We shared our first kiss after, and I knew something was different right then and there. Dave, I owe you a lot for that push in the right direction!

Needless to say, this girl was on cloud nine. Even when I realized Joe was the kind of guy I’d like to date (which was about halfway through my class with him), I didn’t think it would ever work out with him in particular. I couldn’t believe it!

Then the University went on break. We didn’t see each other for 6 weeks, but kept talking. When she got back, I accidentally referred to her as my girlfriend, and she was cool with it.

Talk about bad timing! That was the one time I cursed Scranton for their 6 week intersession. But, as Joe said, we kept in touch and pretty much knew where it was going when I got back.

From there, we went on dates, met each other’s parents, and went on our first big trip…all within the first 6 months.

We went to Disney World with my friends, and while we were watching the fireworks, I told I loved her.

I almost said it 3 months in, when she snuck into my apartment to do my dishes for me.

I almost said it on Valentine’s Day, when he sent flowers to my job.

There a lot of details we can leave out here – let’s just skip to the engagement.

I knew I wanted to marry her pretty quickly. I actually told my parents and brothers in May 2014, about 6 months before I intended to ask her.

I went ring shopping in June while we were planning another trip to Disney World – I was attending a conference and she was going to join. I would do it there.

As luck would have it, I got hired at a hospital and the mandatory training was that same week. BOOO!

It’s cool! We were going to go to Baltimore the weekend before. I was speaking at a conference, so I figured I could find someplace nice to do it there!

…and that was the only weekend before work I could move into my apartment. Apparently I am great at ruining plans.

OK OK. What’s today? September 10th? I am going to her parents’ house this weekend. I will talk to her father then. I will ask her to marry me on September 20th, while she’s visiting me in Scranton.

After the Disney fiasco (I knew he would have done it there) I put getting engaged out of my mind. I knew it would be soon, but was out of guesses for when. So on September 20th I met up with Rachel, who would be my roommate when we both moved to Allentown to work at Lehigh Valley Hospital. We got coffee and I planned to meet Joe in the Rose Garden on campus afterward. I did so and Joe stood up to meet me.

He started talking about the show How I Met Your Mother (not abnormal at all) and the crazy girl he went on a date with shortly before he started seeing me. Next thing I know he’s down on one knee. And the rest is history. I kind of blacked out, but vaguely remember saying “Oh no” for some reason, even though my head was shouting YES! My mouth caught up to my brain eventually and I said Yes.

So here we are now. We cannot be more excited to start our lives together, beginning with a celebration with our family and friends.